Comments on: Oakland salaries higher than Bay Area averages

By: HowRuDoin

HowRuDoin — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:16:10 +0000

So, How much does an Average BART Bus/Subway Driver make?
I’ve searched many websites and can’t get an ACTUAL Yearly Salary!

By: Peter Hauer

Peter Hauer — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:51:03 +0000

Thank you for your reply. My numbers come from visiting the city web sites I listed and reading their MOUs on line. Also, most of those cities also contribute to the emplyees retirement,a s dies Oakland. I included livermore becuase I was told my my Union that it was on the list of Core cires in the 2008 survey. If that is wrong then I will remove livermore. HOWEVER, you made a good point when you said the data for Oakland pay came from the city. I shall contact the people who put the data on the city web site. Thanks again for your reply.

By: V Smoothe

V Smoothe — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:00:51 +0000

Peter, since you provide no sources for your numbers, it’s difficult for me to pinpoint the source of the discrepancy. Offhand, I would posit that you might have skipped the note on the data explaining that salaries listed include not just hourly wage, but also employer paid retirement contributions. I would also note that Livermore, which has by far the highest pay you cite and raises the average of your list by almost $1.50/hr, is not part of the salary survey. In any case, your anger is misplaced. As stated very clearly on the document, the information was compiled by the City of Oakland, not me. So if you want to dispute the data, you’ll have to take it up with them.

By: Peter Hauer

Peter Hauer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:54:05 +0000

Some of your numbers are FALSE. For example, just compare Oakland Animal Control Officer pay to seven other similar agencies. (Berkeley $26.41, Contra Costa Co.$28.72, Fremont, $29.34, Hayward $26.47, Livermore $33.19, San Francisco $28.30, San Jose $26.37, for an average of $28.57 per hour (top step) HOWEVER Oakland pays $26.16 per hour, which is about NINE PERCENT LESS than these other agencies. How many other pay estimates have you messed up???? NOTE: the agencies just listed are the only ones from the CORE survey of comparable agencies that have their own animal control officers. (I did not include agencies that contract out, or that use cops or technicians for animal services.)vty Peter Hauer

By: len raphael

len raphael — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:32:40 +0000

but if say 75% of the 1Bill budget went to employee costs, that’s at most a savings avail for cops of say .20x( 803Mil – 208M-120M) = 95Mill . @200k/year per addtl cop = 475 more cops.

if only 10% pay cut, 238 more cops. Then we’d still have the deficit to cover.l

By: len raphael

len raphael — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:16:36 +0000

trying to guestimate how much oakland could save to bolster police. if it’s city employees were paid on the average 20% less then they currently are paid. ignoring that a big chunk of the city’s 1.07Bill budget is for non-personnel type expenses such as interest, vehicles, supplies, insurance, utilities, consultants, grants, etc. and that the police budget is 208Mill, and fire is 120Mill, that would leave 738Mill at most. That also ignores contractual and other restrictions.

So 20% of 738Mill wb 147Mill. At say 200k/year for total wages plus benefits plus overhead for each addtl cop, that would pay for 735 more cops. If only 50% of the total 1.07Bill budget were for personnel compensation, we could still pay for 367 more cops, bringing us close to 1,070 from the 703 or so now.

A 20% ain’t gonna happen. But with a 10% across the board compensation cut, we could add 184 cops to get to 886.

all of this assumed a balance budget, which ain’t the case. So would have to cut programs, libraries, parks etc. to cover the 50 to 90 mill plus deficit.

By: len raphael

len raphael — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:03:48 +0000

in a city wide contest for say at large, where the fund raising limits might not be high enough to pay for door to door get out the vote of your supporters etc., would think the candidate w the most union free labor would have a huge advantage and owe a large debt for that assistance. but if the candidate has enough of their own money to hire the canvassers, no debt.

union labor will not show up on any election finance reports.

By: Max Allstadt

Max Allstadt — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:28:38 +0000

Yeah, I ran into one of those guys in Adams Point while canvassing for Sean. I was friendly and he was brazen enough to tell me he was earning hours for the union by doing it. He was from hayward. I wanted to follow him around and go to all the same doors and say “he’s from hayward, I’m from west oakland. Who do you think is more sincere?”

By: dto510

dto510 — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:05:01 +0000

To expand on what V said about the political power of unions in Oakland, Sean Sullivan had way more volunteer muscle than Nancy Nadel until about two weeks before the election, when a surge of union “volunteers” blanketed D3 with her literature. Though they didn’t live in Oakland, they were able to provide much assistance to Ms. Nadel’s reelection. A few weeks later, she led the call for another above-inflation COLA increase.

By: V Smoothe

V Smoothe — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:56:32 +0000

Well, the last time an elected official stood up to the union, they went out and dug themselves up a dinosaur to run against him for Mayor as payback. Look how well that turned out! If voters want their representatives to stand up to the city employees, then they need to start voting for people who will do so, not those who coddle them.